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Re: New Kramer guitars

imo, the new kramers are crap......good for beginners, but thats about it. Try going go for a vintage pacer or baretta; or look for some of the reissue ones like the 1985 baretta RI, 1984 "EVH type" pacer, JS RI... they are MUCH better.

Re: New Kramer guitars

Originally Posted by Christopher Caruana

imo, the new kramers are crap......good for beginners, but thats about it. Try going go for a vintage pacer or baretta; or look for some of the reissue ones like the 1985 baretta RI, 1984 "EVH type" pacer, JS RI... they are MUCH better.

Originally Posted by IanBallard

Gibson has ruined the Kramer and Steinberger lines. Two very prominent and innovative companies in the 80's have become cheesy shadows of what they once were.

Avoid.

Satchel disagrees with you

I've also played a few, not my thing but if you are looking for a import super strat type of guitar you should give one a try.

Originally Posted by Lucid_Lunatic

If you think an Epi is as good as a Gibson, you're probablly not old enough to find the clit yet.

Re: New Kramer guitars

I recently bought the Kramer Pacer Classic , the 2010 $350 one. And I have made it a killer player IMO.

I'll start with the cons:

Cheap Floyd copy with pretty soft metal.
Bridge Epi pickup is crap.
The "treble bleed mod" and tone control is a disaster, just mud all day long at any setting of the volume control.

Pros:

Great neck , really really comfortable, 12" radius, R3 nut. while my hands prefer R2, this neck feels great, profile kinda similar to 80's JEM's, but a little more beef to it.'s
Decent body wood that is supposed to be mahogany, def not plywood like the cheap 80's Kramer Strikers.

I found an old Floyd Rose at decent price on eBay, NOS and in perfect condition.
It's a straight swap, but I did replace the inserts as well, the OFR inserts have way finer threading=more contact=more tone

As everybody else here, I have a few pickups around, so out with the Epis and in with a Custom Custom in the bridge and a PAF Pro in the neck.
And of course removing the bright cap and tone control from the circuit.
And finally a Dimarzio 4PDT switch for a decent clean tone in the middle position, same wiring as the EBMM JP's.

I have a few clips using it, not super amazing being recorded with a Roland Micro Cube direct, but decent enough.

While I spent a couple hundreds extra on it, it's still a bargain to me totally happy. Looks killer too:

That said, I received an original 84' Kramer Pacer Special, and it's a better guitar for sure, but being old and well loved, it needs new frets and a good setup, which will make it more expensive then the new one in the end.

Re: New Kramer guitars

I had one of the last USA kramer '85 baretta reissues and let me just say it was a beautiful instrument. The workmanship was outstanding, but I just never clicked with that guitar. So, i ended up selling it and using the money to buy a good tube amp. If I had a chance, i would love to look into getting another one of those or an older Pacer

Re: New Kramer guitars

I recently bought the Kramer Pacer Classic , the 2010 $350 one. And I have made it a killer player IMO.

I'll start with the cons:

Cheap Floyd copy with pretty soft metal.
Bridge Epi pickup is crap.
The "treble bleed mod" and tone control is a disaster, just mud all day long at any setting of the volume control.

Pros:

Great neck , really really comfortable, 12" radius, R3 nut. while my hands prefer R2, this neck feels great, profile kinda similar to 80's JEM's, but a little more beef to it.'s
Decent body wood that is supposed to be mahogany, def not plywood like the cheap 80's Kramer Strikers.

I found an old Floyd Rose at decent price on eBay, NOS and in perfect condition.
It's a straight swap, but I did replace the inserts as well, the OFR inserts have way finer threading=more contact=more tone

As everybody else here, I have a few pickups around, so out with the Epis and in with a Custom Custom in the bridge and a PAF Pro in the neck.
And of course removing the bright cap and tone control from the circuit.
And finally a Dimarzio 4PDT switch for a decent clean tone in the middle position, same wiring as the EBMM JP's.

I have a few clips using it, not super amazing being recorded with a Roland Micro Cube direct, but decent enough.

While I spent a couple hundreds extra on it, it's still a bargain to me totally happy. Looks killer too:

That said, I received an original 84' Kramer Pacer Special, and it's a better guitar for sure, but being old and well loved, it needs new frets and a good setup, which will make it more expensive then the new one in the end.

The cheap Kramer holds it's own.

Damn, this turned into a full blown review....

Awesome!

Originally Posted by Lucid_Lunatic

If you think an Epi is as good as a Gibson, you're probablly not old enough to find the clit yet.

Re: New Kramer guitars

Originally Posted by Mincer

The newer Steinbergers are more than worthy successors to the 80s models. Ned still designs them all.

Maybe they've improved. A few years back, a friend of mine who runs a music store said there were some QC issues with those. Maybe Ned put his foot down. Still, I'd like to see a Kramer Pacer X and a Steinberger X that makes use of Gibson's robo stuff and the built-in effects in a more appropriate forum. I think Kramer and Steinberger were more of a "invention experimentation" thing than Gibson, which caters more to the traditional crowd.

Re: New Kramer guitars

Originally Posted by IanBallard

Still, I'd like to see a Kramer Pacer X and a Steinberger X that makes use of Gibson's robo stuff and the built-in effects in a more appropriate forum. I think Kramer and Steinberger were more of a "invention experimentation" thing than Gibson, which caters more to the traditional crowd.

That's a neat idea. Steinbergers were for players who weren't afraid of innovation. What better time to try that stuff than when you're playing a headless guitar with a neck made out of graphite or whatever it was?

You know, the most fun I ever had playing Metallica's stuff was on a friend's Steinberger?